The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - March 29, 1993 - Page 5


chigan rallies back from an eight-point halftime
icket to the big dance in the Bayou

Winning ugly won't help
later, but it works for now

SEATTLE-Back in my high Ken
school days, there were occasional Davidoff
times when maybe I didn't give it
my all. I would talk to my grand-
parents about World War II rather
than pe-ruse the assigned text, or
read the English version of a
French book I had to know.
My teachers always had the
same warning for me: "You won't
be able to get away with that in
college!"
Well, it's four years later, and
in about a month, I'll be the proud a ,
owner of a University of Michigan
degree. Maybe I never quite made James B. Angell
Scholar status, but my professors never had to send any
notes home to my parents, either. The point is, I did
enough to get by.
The Michigan men's basketball team concluded its
Western Regional run yesterday with a 77-72 victory
over Temple. So the Wolverines return to the Final
Four, the only squad from last year's quartet to do so, it
should be noted. The four-game stretch probably won't
rank as one of the most memorable in NCAA tourna-
ment history, but who cares?
After Friday night's ugly victory over George
Washington, everyone - fan, reporter and grunge mu-
sician alike - said, "Jeez, if they play like that Sunday,
they won't beat Temple!"
Likewise, considering a subpar Michigan first half
yesterday and Kentucky's outstanding tournament
performance, it's quite probable that the same naysayers
will whine, "Well if they play like that Saturday against

Kentucky, they'll definitely lose!"
So what. "Cheers" wouldn't be as funny as it is if
Ted Danson acted on the sitcom as poorly as he did in
"A Fine Mess." And if Bill Clinton campaigned against
a more skilled politician like he did against George
Bush, he would've been toast.
We could exist in a world of conditionals until Steve
Fisher gets called for his next technical foul. But it
wouldn't mean jack. I see nothing wrong with criticiz-
ing Michigan's performance in any game. But project-
ing that critique into the future, or taking it back to the
past, seems pointless.
"The most important thing is you deal with today's
game," Jalen Rose said. "Other than that, as long as we
keep winning, those that make that criticism, that kind
of makes them look bad."
The Wolverines still haven't played what they like to
call "forty minutes of Michigan basketball" this entire
tournament. But they really haven't had to do so.
Yesterday's first half was especially difficult to
stomach. Eight turnovers to Temple's three. A shooting
percentage of .444. And although their play improved
significantly in the second half, the Wolverines
continued to shoot poorly from the charity stripe, going
17-for-28 for the game. Nevertheless, they move on to
New Orleans.
As Juwan Howard exited the Kingdome floor and
headed towards the Michigan locker room, he shouted,
"We're goin' back babe!" -
Yes, Juwan, you are. And it doesn't matter how ugly
it may have been, because as your head coach likes to
say, you've lived to dance another day. Anything else.
doesn't matter.


I

TEMPLE (72)
Min. M-A AOT FP.
Jones 31 7-15 0235 31
Battle 40 5-83
Cunnin'ham22 0-0
Brunson 40 6-15
McKie 40 7-20 2212 51
Ozment 5 0-0
Carsta'phen 5 0-0
King 4 0-00000 00

FT
M-A
0-2
3-7
0-0
6-7
2-2
t-2
0-0
0-0
0-0

3-5
8-1

A
0
0
0
9
0
0
0

F
3
1
5
2
5
1
1
0
_4._

Pts.
18
13
0
21
19
1
0
0
.0

Totals 200 259 12-20 1712 10 22 72
FG%- .424. FT%- . 600. Three-point goals:
10-18, .556 (Jones 4-5, Brunson 3-6, McKie 3-
7). Team rebounds: 5. Blocks: 3 (Jones).
Turnovers: 11 (Jones 3. Battle 2, McKie 2, Ivey
2, Cunningham, Brunson). Steals: 9. Technical
fouls: Bench.
MICHIGAN (77)
FO FT Reb.
Min.MWA WA OQT A FPt.
Webber 32 6-12 1-2 6-12 3 2 13
Jackson 28 3-6 4-8 1-2 2 3 10
Howard 36 5-13 1-3 6-9 2 3 11
Rose 38 5-8 7-10 2-5 2 1 17
King 39 5-14 3-4 2-4 2 2 14
Riley 12 4-5 1-1 2-4 0 3 9
Pelinka 12 1-4 0-0 1-2 1 2 3
Voskull 3 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 200 29-63 17-28 21-40 12 16 77
FG%- .460. FT%- .607. Three-point goals:
2-11, .182 (King 1-4, Pelinka 1-3, Webber 0-1,
Rose 0-2, Voskull 0-1). Team rebounds: 2.
Blocks: 8 (Webber 5. Howard 2, King).
Turnovers: 10 (Jackson 3. Webber 2, Howard 2,
King. Riley, Pelinka). Steals: 7. Technical fouls:
none.
Temple ......... 35 37 - 72
Michigan....d;24.-27 50 - 77
At Kngde; A-24,196

TEMPLE
Continued from page 1
ccntef Cunningham fouled out, leav-
ing 6-foot-4 Chris Ozment and 6-
foot-6 Jason Ivey to fend off the
Michigan attack.
"We were small," Temple coach
John Chaney said. "Eddie (Jones) is
quite a gifted player, but he certainly
can't compete against the likes of a
6-foot-9, 500-pounders or whatever.
It's just impossible to do that."
If defending Webber and Howard
was not daunting enough for
Temple, then overcoming Chaney's
technical foul was. With 1:49 re-
maining in the second half, Chaney
was given a technical for profanity, a
charge he adamantly denied. After
the game, Chaney claimed he was
yelling instructions to Battie.
Regardless, one free throw from
Ray Jackson and four from Jalen
Rose on the technical and ensuing
possession made the score, 72-62.

(Fisher) gave me a
challenge. He told me
to play like a man,
rebound and give it
second and third
efforts.'
- Chris Webber
Michigan forward
Before the foul on Brunson and the
ensuing technical, Michigan had led'
by a scant five points.
"I didn't hear what he said, but it
had an impact, without a doubt,"
Fisher said.
The sequence ended a stretch of
marvelous basketball in which,
Michigan first battled back from its
eight-point halftime deficit and then
struggled with the Owls for control
of the game. The second half con-
tained seven lead changes and two
ties.

I1gour after the Wolverines' 77-72 victory over Temple in yesterday's West regional final.


Temple coach cries
foul over Wolverines'
aggressive board play

by Ken Sugiura
Daily Basketball Writer
SEATTLE - Following his
team's loss yesterday to Michigan in
the NCAA West regional final,
Temple coach John Chaney wore the
exhausted and downcast look of one
who had lost a hard struggle.
On the inside, Chaney felt the
emotions of a man who was frus-
trated and treated unfairly. In the
press conference following the
Owls' 77-72 loss to Michigan,
Chaney did not fail to express his in-
terpretation of his technical foul
called late in the game.
"I think anybody who was near
my bench knows clearly that I was
talking to Derrick Battie (and not a
referee)," Chaney said.
Chaney used the questioning to
state his case about what he felt was
unfair play by Michigan.
"I clearly made it very clear to
him and all my players after watch-
ing a number of games that this team
plays - that they push and put one
hand on your back and jump over
you," Chaney said. "And I thought
this was happening to my team over
and over again."
This, Chaney said, was what he
was telling Battie when referee

for "unsportsmanlike conduct: pro-
fanity," to which Chaney responded,
"The behavior itself may have been
profane."
The sequence played a huge role
in the game, as it put the contest vir-
tually out of reach for Temple. A
pair of Eddie Jones three-pointers,
two Rick Brunson free throws and a
tip-in by Battie served only to close
the final margin to five points.
"We feel we would have still
won the game, but it gave us a
comfort level to know that we're go-
ing to get the ball after all those free
throws," Fisher said.
More than the technical, it
seemed that Michigan's style of play
particularly bothered Chaney. Speci-
fically bothersome to him was the
shoving that allegedly occurred
under the basket.
"I have young players and they
were being taken advantage of by
(Michigan players) putting their
hands on them and pushing them
under the baskets and getting second
and third shots," Chaney said.
In the game, Michigan grabbed
21 offensive rebounds, and 40
overall, to the Owls' 17 and 32.
Against the Colonials Friday night,
NMirhmnan crn-hhed 41 rehnund